Before 197_4, 5 or whatever it was the consequence for not having insurance was if you had a wreck and couldn\’t pay the damage. The business of giving you a ticket for no ID card wasn\’t until the later law was passed. Some companies didn\’t bother with ID cards unless you asked for one.
I first entered this business 49 years ago. Under the original law it was believed about 20% of the drivers were uninsured. Since the mandatory law of 1981 it is now believed that about 25% are uninsured and many of these do not even have a license. The \”lesson\”, people who can not afford insurance are never going to buy it and \”laws\” aren\’t going to change that. Still, poor people need a car to get to work. Taking their car from them just creates a different problem. It is time to end mandatory insurance and come up with a fresh idea.
Is it a bit presumptuous to assume the cars being towed for no insurance belong to the working poor? I\’ve run across several instances where the uninsured vehicle owner was decked out in very expensive finery, including designer sports shoes that had to have cost the equivalent of at least a couple of months insurance premium.
YAY, cheers. I\’ve been sayint the same thing for years. The majority of uninsured drivers are short-term uninsured. They lose a job or get sick. With a choice of feed the kid, pay the rent, or buy insurance, they need to feed the kid pay the rent then buy insurance. The short term is too short for the cops to followup with even if they got lapse notices from the insurance companies.
SO, now my question is \”what are these cities going to do with all the cars they collect?\” Most cars for the uninsured are worth less than 6 months of storage fees.
Harsh as it may sound, if you cannot afford liability insurance, you simply cannot afford to drive. To drive without it is to put others at risk. Is that fair? Of course not! Where did we get the idea that driving is a \”right.\” It is a privilege. Privileges usually cost money. If you don\’t have the money, you cannot afford the privilege of driving.
What then do we do with the working poor? I don\’t yet have an answer but am searching for one. One thing is for sure though, allowing them to continue to drive without insurance is bad policy. No wonder insurance company loss ratios continue to climb causing premium adjustments to compensate. What about \”No-Fault\” insurance? I don\’t like the thought of it but it may be the only real solution. I really do not have a \”heart of stone\” as some of my more liberal friends would suggest. I would like to find a way help those who believe they cannot afford insurance to work and continue to pursue the \”American Dream of Financial Success.\” Everyone has to start somewhere but it is simply not fair for them to climb on the backs of those who are already paying the price. What say you?
I love the idea of \”fair\”, but it is relative and not absolute, depending on your point of view, and in the case of auto ins laws it has not proven to be practical. Some advocate a \”No Play, No Pay\” style of law in which uninsured plantiffs would only receive compensatory damages. It might be an improvement.
So, our struggling poor person meets the insurance requirement with $20,000/$40,000/$15,000 limits.
He/she hits you and totals your two year old customized Suburban – $15,000 pd is the down payment on your burb. He breaks a leg of your passenger who has med bills of $18,000 plus 3 mo. lost income because his job won\’t let him work with a cast $14,000. Total BI is $32,000, PD is $27,000 = $59,000 bills. Insurance pays $20,000 + $15,000 = $35,000 resulting in a net shortage of $24,000.
Tell me again how making this person with no assets buy insurance really helps you.
The purpose of liability insurance is to
1. defend the insured in a lawsuit
2. pay what the insured owes if the case cannot be defended or he loses the case.
I was rear-ended by a driver who was not only uninsured, but was driving a vehicle that wasn\’t his, and didn\’t have a driver\’s license. We showed up at court to press charges, but he skipped. IMHO, anything the police can do to nail these deadbeats is fine with me. Enough excuses. If you can\’t afford the minimum insurance premium, take the frigging bus.
So, according to HAL, if it is broke, which it has been proven that it is, let\’s just leave it broke. That is asinine thinking. Any improvement made will only help all concerned, the insureds, the company, and the claimants. I must say to HAL that the thought process of a little not being enough is quite a bit better than none at all. Rome was not built in a day, nor can an industry where, depending on who you listen to, has an uninsured rate of 15-40%, afford to not do anything towards improving itself. I personally think the database is moving in a direction that will cause healing, if i may use that term, in the industry. Oh, and by the way, i would muc hrather get paid $35,000 in your scenario, than what you would currently get with those same people that are uninsured now that, under the database, would be at least required the state minimum!
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Before 197_4, 5 or whatever it was the consequence for not having insurance was if you had a wreck and couldn\’t pay the damage. The business of giving you a ticket for no ID card wasn\’t until the later law was passed. Some companies didn\’t bother with ID cards unless you asked for one.
Thanks for the spell check! Now everyone will read my post so they can find the spelling errors.
I first entered this business 49 years ago. Under the original law it was believed about 20% of the drivers were uninsured. Since the mandatory law of 1981 it is now believed that about 25% are uninsured and many of these do not even have a license. The \”lesson\”, people who can not afford insurance are never going to buy it and \”laws\” aren\’t going to change that. Still, poor people need a car to get to work. Taking their car from them just creates a different problem. It is time to end mandatory insurance and come up with a fresh idea.
Is it a bit presumptuous to assume the cars being towed for no insurance belong to the working poor? I\’ve run across several instances where the uninsured vehicle owner was decked out in very expensive finery, including designer sports shoes that had to have cost the equivalent of at least a couple of months insurance premium.
My $.02 worth.
YAY, cheers. I\’ve been sayint the same thing for years. The majority of uninsured drivers are short-term uninsured. They lose a job or get sick. With a choice of feed the kid, pay the rent, or buy insurance, they need to feed the kid pay the rent then buy insurance. The short term is too short for the cops to followup with even if they got lapse notices from the insurance companies.
SO, now my question is \”what are these cities going to do with all the cars they collect?\” Most cars for the uninsured are worth less than 6 months of storage fees.
Harsh as it may sound, if you cannot afford liability insurance, you simply cannot afford to drive. To drive without it is to put others at risk. Is that fair? Of course not! Where did we get the idea that driving is a \”right.\” It is a privilege. Privileges usually cost money. If you don\’t have the money, you cannot afford the privilege of driving.
What then do we do with the working poor? I don\’t yet have an answer but am searching for one. One thing is for sure though, allowing them to continue to drive without insurance is bad policy. No wonder insurance company loss ratios continue to climb causing premium adjustments to compensate. What about \”No-Fault\” insurance? I don\’t like the thought of it but it may be the only real solution. I really do not have a \”heart of stone\” as some of my more liberal friends would suggest. I would like to find a way help those who believe they cannot afford insurance to work and continue to pursue the \”American Dream of Financial Success.\” Everyone has to start somewhere but it is simply not fair for them to climb on the backs of those who are already paying the price. What say you?
I love the idea of \”fair\”, but it is relative and not absolute, depending on your point of view, and in the case of auto ins laws it has not proven to be practical. Some advocate a \”No Play, No Pay\” style of law in which uninsured plantiffs would only receive compensatory damages. It might be an improvement.
So, our struggling poor person meets the insurance requirement with $20,000/$40,000/$15,000 limits.
He/she hits you and totals your two year old customized Suburban – $15,000 pd is the down payment on your burb. He breaks a leg of your passenger who has med bills of $18,000 plus 3 mo. lost income because his job won\’t let him work with a cast $14,000. Total BI is $32,000, PD is $27,000 = $59,000 bills. Insurance pays $20,000 + $15,000 = $35,000 resulting in a net shortage of $24,000.
Tell me again how making this person with no assets buy insurance really helps you.
The purpose of liability insurance is to
1. defend the insured in a lawsuit
2. pay what the insured owes if the case cannot be defended or he loses the case.
I was rear-ended by a driver who was not only uninsured, but was driving a vehicle that wasn\’t his, and didn\’t have a driver\’s license. We showed up at court to press charges, but he skipped. IMHO, anything the police can do to nail these deadbeats is fine with me. Enough excuses. If you can\’t afford the minimum insurance premium, take the frigging bus.
So, according to HAL, if it is broke, which it has been proven that it is, let\’s just leave it broke. That is asinine thinking. Any improvement made will only help all concerned, the insureds, the company, and the claimants. I must say to HAL that the thought process of a little not being enough is quite a bit better than none at all. Rome was not built in a day, nor can an industry where, depending on who you listen to, has an uninsured rate of 15-40%, afford to not do anything towards improving itself. I personally think the database is moving in a direction that will cause healing, if i may use that term, in the industry. Oh, and by the way, i would muc hrather get paid $35,000 in your scenario, than what you would currently get with those same people that are uninsured now that, under the database, would be at least required the state minimum!